Is Your Business Ready for the Internet of Things?

Dec 4, 2018

The winter season is fast approaching! Colder weather means families are spending time enjoying the holidays, giving gifts, and playing with new gadgets. With less time in the office comes more time on other devices, especially wearable technology like Apple Watches or FitBits. In other words, it is time to think about IoT security.

IoT stands for Internet of Things. Today, we are interconnected like never before, and more and more of our everyday devices are connecting to the internet and to each other. Consequently, more personal and business data is being shared. Your IT strategy must now encompass all the different ways through which you and your team are connecting to your business network.

You are probably wondering how an employee’s fitness tracker affects your cybersecurity strategy. Fitness trackers need to connect to another device, like a computer or smartphone, in order for the user to view all of the data they collect throughout the day, or input information like foods eaten or how many glasses of water they had. In this example, your employee might be connecting their fitness tracker to both their work and home computers. If their home computer is less secure, a hacker may be able to use the fitness tracker to also infiltrate your network. This is just one example. New IoT devices are now coming onto the market constantly. Soon, smart home assistants could be as common as smartphones. You may even make use of them in your office as a virtual personal assistant to cut down on multitasking and automate office maintenance. With all of this innovation and change, it can be hard for your IT strategy to keep up.

IoT devices are known for being unsecured and lacking built-in security systems. They are also designed to be found and recognized by other devices, so if the default password has not been changed, it can be extremely easy for a hacker to find and access a device by exploiting a known default password. In order to secure your network in the face of increased connectivity, you need to put proactive policies in place, rather than depending on the device’s security systems. Hackers are sophisticated, and their favorite targets are those they expect to be unsecured. They assume that small-to-medium sized businesses are not investing in cybersecurity and will not keep up with the latest technology trends.

We’re here to prove the hackers wrong. With Haselkorn in your corner, you can be confident that we will keep you up-to-date on the latest cybersecurity best practices. We can also help you develop and implement policies that will help manage which personal devices your employees connect to your business network, and educate them around the security steps they need to take when doing so. Even seemingly small steps, like making sure they change their devices’ default password, can make a big difference.

Don’t let the ever-changing IT environment overwhelm you. Contact Haselkorn today. Partner with us to keep up with the latest technology trends of this holiday season and manage the risks so that hackers never catch you off guard.